UC-San Francisco offering free 6-week online program.
By The American Bazaar Staff
WASHINGTON, DC : Here’s the latest offering in America’s online curriculum: a 6-week abortion course.
The University of California – San Francisco will offer from this coming Monday a free six-week online course to teach students on how to perform abortions, the first of its kind in the country. Around 3,000 students have already signed up.
Titled “Abortion: Quality Care and Public Health Implications,” the program is offered through the university’s partnership with Coursera, an educational technology company.
The program includes, among other subjects, “clinical aspects of medication abortion, aspiration abortion, post-abortion contraception, and pain management for abortion, history of abortion, abortion stigma, complications and counseling.”
“I think that if we can inspire even a small portion of the people who take the course to take steps in their communities to increase access to safe abortion and decrease stigma about abortion, then we have been totally successful,” Dr. Jody Steinauer, associate professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at the University of California – San Francisco, said in an interview to The Daily Beast.
“Each week’s lectures will incorporate the stories of women who seek abortion in order to better portray abortion significance and rationale,” its outline states. “Other topics will include a brief history of abortion, the clinical aspects of medication and procedural abortions in and after the first trimester, an overview of patient-centered abortion-care, the basics of abortion counseling, the professional obligations of health care practitioners to ensure that women have access to safe abortion care, and the maze of restrictions that make safe abortion care inaccessible to many women.”
Students who finish the course will earn a certificate, and “AMA PRA Category 1 CME Credits” will be given to practicing physicians and other health professionals who complete it, says the university.